Natural love of science led volunteer outdoors

Vangie Atkinson and Bill Toland showed up at Pinnacle Mountain State Park’s Volunteer Appreciation Day cookout June 25 to find a cake decorated like the mountain and burgers grilled by the park superintendent waiting for them and other members of the Central Arkansas Master Naturalists.
Vangie Atkinson and Bill Toland showed up at Pinnacle Mountain State Park’s Volunteer Appreciation Day cookout June 25 to find a cake decorated like the mountain and burgers grilled by the park superintendent waiting for them and other members of the Central Arkansas Master Naturalists.

Dr. Vangie Atkinson loved hiking, running -- being outdoors -- but she didn't get out much.

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In her third year as an Arkansas Master Naturalist, Vangie Atkinson says volunteering in exchange for education has helped her get to know The Natural State, and a lot of nice people who share her curiosity about science.

"I was in the operating room," says the retired anesthesiologist. "I always worked full time ... 60, 70 hours a week. And you're at the mercy of the surgeons. You work until the day is done."

She felt blessed to be so well employed, but 30 years after moving to The Natural State from the beautiful Big Bend of West Texas, she'd seen more nature during mission trips to Honduras and Mexico. Well, she did drive to Fort Smith and Morrilton once or twice, and there may have been a football game or two in there, but still. Hospital walls.

With retirement three years ago came her chance to run outside. But where to? She still wanted to do some good in the world.

Her best friend, Joellen Beard, told her about the Arkansas Master Naturalists.

This 11-year-old outdoorsy organization has 500 or so members in seven regional chapters around the state. The one Atkinson joined, Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, has 131 members. Naturalists volunteer at parks and nature centers and in return get education that feeds their curiosity about the world.

Atkinson signed right up. "I became a NIT," she says, proudly. "A Naturalist in Training."

Forty hours of education later, followed by 40 hours of service, a one-time $135 first-year fee plus $30 annual dues, and she is a Master Naturalist.

"The training had all sorts of topics," she says, "about mammals, reptiles, geology, trail building, birds, trees ...." She has learned to identify frogs by their voices, done a lot of hiking, helped children appreciate nature.

Now every year she commits to take at least another eight hours of training, pays her $30 dues and gladly does at least another 40 hours of volunteering for projects she enjoys -- because, she says, "we actually help."

"They certainly do," says Matthew Friant, an interpreter at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. "Central Arkansas Master Naturalists are my main source of volunteers to use for Little Wild Ones. We teach every other Thursday, and that's for toddlers. And I use them a lot for day camps and home school programs."

If one hour of one volunteer's time is valued at $19.14 (the park's standard estimate for 2015), the central Arkansas chapter provided $1,094,921 worth of service to the public in 2015. And not merely to Pinnacle Mountain. Naturalists collaborate with 25 nonprofits.

Atkinson does most of her work for Pinnacle and the Junior Naturalist Camp at Wildwood Park for the Arts. "I like to join the projects led by [Master Naturalist] Bill Toland. He's a great leader and we work with kids," she says.

Toland retired just as the organization was being developed by the state park's support group, Partners for Pinnacle, and so he got in on the ground floor, graduating with the first class in 2006. "Back then we didn't have the tools we use now, and so we built trails using hand tools," he says.

Many projects later, he has built paths, installed interpretive plaques, led hikes, cleared leaves off trails so runners wouldn't break their ankles, taught chain-saw safety, attended prescribed burns, made bluebird boxes, served on the Arkansas Trails Council and picked up trash while floating on a river, among other tasks.

Volunteers are free to serve where their interest takes them and also to create projects. "A lot of people have their own baby that they like to work on," Atkinson says. In 2016, her options also included random things like working in a greenhouse, picking up trash, tending bird feeders, building bee gardens, sampling stream-water quality, joining the Christmas Bird Count, the Great Backyard Bird Count, the Monarch Watch and Frog Watch.

And because she shares these experiences with fellow naturalists, the group's monthly meetings (third Thursdays at the Witt Stephens Jr. Nature Center in downtown Little Rock) are like reunions. For instance, when Atkinson met up with fellow certified naturalists David and Jane Schroeder at a recent state park Volunteer Appreciation Day cookout beside the Maumelle River, she and Jane almost put themselves in stitches talking about frog calls.

"The education is just gold, just absolutely gold," David Schroeder says, "not only as a NIT but ongoing. ... We always have great speakers at the monthly meetings." (Recent topics included how plants defend themselves against insects, and chronic wasting disease in Arkansas elk.)

Alas, Arkansas Master Naturalists only enrolls new members once a year at the first of the year, and the training for new NITs is only offered on 10 Saturdays from January to May. Volunteers enroll during the winter, with applications due New Year's Day. Information on joining any of the state chapters is under "How Do I Join?" on the website wordpress.arkansasmasternaturalists.org.

"So you should watch the website," Atkinson says.

High Profile on 07/09/2017

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